Freedom from helplessness

All of us have faced situations in life where we feel terribly helpless, completely at wits' end. No amount of thinking or talking seems to bring any solution. We feel boxed in from all sides, without any obvious escape or relief from the situation. This can be very stressful and can play havoc with our minds and bodies.
Like animals, human beings are controlled by the autonomous nervous system, which consists of the sympathetic and para-sympathetic arms. The sympathetic nervous system is res-ponsible for the 'fight or flight response' when the individual is faced with adverse situations. Depending on our basic personality, and on our assessment of the situation, we decide between escaping from the given situation, and fighting it. Our body responds by releasing extra quantities of hormones and sugar, increasing our heart rate and breathing, so that we have enough strength to run away or to fight. Either option takes usaway from danger.
The feeling of helplessness comes when we are faced with circumstances, where we can neither run away, nor fight. Since we have evolved in such a fashion that we depend on either of these actions for our survival, we find ourselves under extreme stress and strain, since we do not have any pre-programmed response apart from these two. Such situations are extremely frustrating and the pressures that build up within start damaging our body and mind. In helpless situations, running away or fighting is impossible, and both these options only seem to worsen the existing situation. When we are surrounded from all directions, the only paths open to us are up or down. While up and down are symbolic and metaphorical, in real life, these would translate into death (up) or severe degradation (down), where a person becomes an addict to substances, in order to ostensiblyescape the inescapable situation. Both these options eventually result only in more suffering and misery for everyone.
Arjuna found himself in such a situation on the battlefield at Kurukshetra. He knew that running away from battle, for a warrior of his reputation and calibre was shameful and disastrous, but perhaps not as much as killing his relatives. God had to show him the right way. In our daily lives, such helpless situations are commonplace, where people are stuck in helpless relationships, where investors are stuck with investments which they can neither redeem nor hold on to, where employees are in jobs which they can't leave or continue with, with teenagers who can't live with or without their parents, or with sufferers of chronic diseases where the treatment is as bad, if not worse, than the disease itself.
When faced with helplessness, one cannot exist in the status quo for too long, as it is destructive and drains us mentally and physically. One needs to do a lot of introspection, and choose between one of the two existing options, carefully weighing the pros and cons. The questions we often have to answer are: "Do i value my personal freedom more, ordo i want harmony? What price am i willing to pay for my choices?"
When we cannot decide between escaping and fighting the situation, the only other option that can save us from deterioration, is the path of total acceptance and surrender. However, this can come only when we have complete and unequivocal trust in a higher power. We need unflinching faith and trust that God is driver of our life's vehicle. Transformation from doer to non-doer, and becoming a witness, is often the only weapon we have against helpless situations.